A Stranger & Strange Events
by Captain Wombat
Summary: The Avengers are sent to retrieve and ancient artifact giving off strange radiation in Paris. While there they meet a strange young man claiming that the artifact belongs to him. Also the Hulk surprises everyone by how he reacts to this stranger. Slash. Bruce/Merlin Steve/Tony. One-shot.


**Okay be warned, this fic was written for pure fun and ridiculousness, written while I've been sick as a way to entertain myself. This is not meant to be serious, the idea popped into my head and this is what become of it. Characters may be a bit OOC. You have been warned, now have fun reading.**

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 **Stranger and Strange Events**

Something very odd happened when the avengers had been on a mission overseas, while stopping Dr. Doom from obtaining a harmful object that could rival that of the arc reacted technologies power. Doom could use it make him and his doom bots all the more powerful. The man was definitely not as smart as Tony, nowhere near in fact, but it would take an idiot not to be able to utilise the power coming off the ancient artefact that they were currently protecting. The artefact looked like a medieval staff, with a blue crystal at the top; the site of it brought back painful memories of Loki's septa. Though the staffs looked nothing alike they were both undeniably powerful and gave off unknown amounts of energy.

There were so many doom bots that the situation turned into a code green, which meant the big guy was called to join the fight. So once again it was a battle with all the avengers assemble to fight, well almost all; Thor was currently off world. In all honestly they were dealing with a ridiculous amount of robots, Thor and his hammer would have come in handy. Usually Tony would hate to have to destroy tech but since it wasn't his, it was actually quite nice to blow up things, he even had different scenery to look at too, how nice. Normally it was just the same boring old New York City landscape littered with the scattered remains of doom bots but now he had the lovely view of the Eiffel tower in the background. It was a nice change from the normal if he did say so himself.

After the battle was won, and the weird staff secured. A strange man approached the group of avengers, minus the hulk he was still jumping around buildings looking for rouge bots to hulk smash. The stranger looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, unruly black hair, ridiculously large ears and bright cerulean eyes that looked like they belong to a much older man. Tony looked at him and hoped he wasn't coming to ask the Black Widow on a date, the last civilian that tried that, well let's just say it didn't turn out the way they had hoped.

Smiling at the memory he waited to see what the kid would do, he stopped about a metre away from the group and said something about, zero of them expected him to say. "I believe you have something of mine, and I would very much like it back. I have to thank you for keeping it safe, I had thought it would have been okay to leave it buried under the Eiffel tower while I was gone, but I guess not."

Before anyone could reply and ask what the hell he was talking about, there was a roar that pierced the air, and the giant thud of a very large and very green rage monster landing about five metres behind the stranger.

Tony and the rest of the avengers tensed, ready to act to protect this idiotic civilian that had approached them claiming the rights to some old staff. Now here's where things start to get strange.

Instead of the fear that should have been on big-ears face, the slight smile that had been on his face now morphed into a wider full smile. As well as a glint of happiness that formed in the strangers eyes like someone had just handed him a gift. Tony official thought this man was insane, and that was saying something coming from him.

The man span around and almost fell over before he righted himself, and took a couple steps towards the hulk. Tony could have laughter at the shear ridiculousness of the situation. People usually ran away from things that could kill them in a moment, but nope, this guy, this guy seemed determined to kill himself. Tony was just about to fly forward and get the man out of the way. He didn't want Bruce having the guilt of killing some stranger because the man wasn't quite right in the head, but he paused as the man spoke.

"Hey Brucie-bear," the stranger tilted his head to the side, and lifted his hand, to what Tony presumed was to scratch his chin, but Tony couldn't be sure, since he was facing the other way. "Looking a little green aren't you."

Tony frowned, that was his nickname. Now here's where things get even stranger.

Every avenger thought that the hulk might do something to the guy, something like smashing him into the ground, or throwing him against a building or even just simply roaring at him in anger, but no, the hulk did none of those things. The angry expression that was on the hulks face turned into a smile. "What the fuck?" Tony thought to himself since when has the hulk ever smiled, apparently since now. Though the smile was surprising it was nowhere near as surprising as what happened next.

The hulk started walking towards the black haired man, said man didn't even flinch at the approach, just stood there calmly. Hulk stopped picked him up with one hand and (pause for suspense) crushed him to his chest in a weird sort of hulky hug. The man grunted and then laughed. "Come on big guy, it hasn't been that long." Almost everyone gaped, jaws dropped staring. With the exception of Natasha who looked on with an expressionless face but Tony could tell that even she was shocked by the slight wideness of her eyes. The hulk might not have been hostile to all of his team-mates but he wasn't overly friendly with them either, so to say that the hulk hugging someone like a long lost teddy bear was a bit of a surprise, well that would have been an understatement.

"Missed me, have you?" Said the stranger they still didn't know anything about, in a cheeky way like he was just talking to another person and not a big green monster that had been smashing robots with his bare fists mere minutes ago. The hulk grunted and nodded, smile still on his face in a very unlike hulk way. The man laughed again. "Aw, I feel loved, but are you planning to put me down any time soon?" Hulk just shook his head, indicating that he had no intention of letting him go.

"Well since you have finished smashing things with your new friends, can I talk to Bruce? It's been a while since I've seen him." Big green gave a look, which Tony had no way of telling what it meant, but the man seemed to know. "I know, I know. I haven't seen you in a while either, but I just want to talk to Bruce for a little while. We will see each other again soon, promise." Another look from the hulk and the guy sighed, continuing what seemed like a very one sided conversation. "I know I said that last time, but how was I supposed to know that you two would have to go on the run for so long, and then you had the whole avengers/battle of New York thing." Again all the hulk did was look at him and the man understood what he was saying. "Don't be jealous, you see and hear everything Bruce does, it's not like he could turn into you just so you could talk to me. Plus you often wake up with the urge to smash things." The man gave the hulk a pointed look as his gaze drifted to one of the hulks victims, a bot that was barely more than dust on the ground.

Tony just couldn't help it any more, he started laughing. Through the suit it sounded robotic and it mix with his real laugh through the comms the other avengers wore, making it seem louder to them and as if there was more than one person laughing. Tony vaguely recognised that Hawkeye was laughing too, the sound of the laughing seemed to draw the attention of the man in the hulk arms to the rest of the avengers, as if he had only just remembered that they were still there. He turned back to the Hulk and said, "So, Bruce?" Hulk growled but reluctantly but the man down, then started to change, shrinking to human size and skin returning to normal instead of the green that was trademark hulk.

Where the hulk once stood, there was now a very tired and dazed looking Bruce, who was blinking rapidly while looking at the ground for a little while. Until he looked up and saw the person standing in front of him, Bruce rubbed his eyes with the hand that wasn't holding up his pants, as if he was seeing something that he wasn't quite sure was there. The other man reached into his pocket and pulled out something handing it to Bruce, The Iron man suit couldn't see what it was, because it was obstructed by half the man's body and his hand, it was times like this that Tony wish he invented some sort of x-ray vision into the suit so he could see, "Hmm maybe the next model of the suit." he distractedly thought to himself.

He didn't have to wait long until he saw what the young man had handed Bruce. It turned out to be a pair of glasses, that looked exactly like the ones that he always wore. "Merlin?" Bruce asked in a confused voice, with an expression to match it. "The one and only." The guy said; if Tony wasn't mistaken, with a fond smile. "What are you doing here?" Merlin rolled his eyes in a manner that seemed to say that it was obvious. "I live here, and you and your friends are trying to steal my staff." Something in Bruce's mind seemed to click, "It was your staff that was giving of the energy." Bruce put his hand to his head like he was disappointed he hadn't figured out something so obvious. "I should have known, I knew the energy looked familiar somehow and considering where it was coming from..." the sentence trailed off and Bruce removed his hand and looked at the black haired man in front of him. "Although I though you said you were going to lock it away somewhere, where it couldn't be found?"

"I was, but someone's been messing around with something they shouldn't, which effected the seal I put upon it, its energy escaped broadcasting it location. I was on my way to reseal it, but by the time I got here that Doom fellow had already gotten it and was in the midst of fighting with you and your friends." Before Bruce could continue the conversation any further, Steve surprisingly cut in. "Bruce, who is this?"

Bruce was about to answer but the stranger beat him to it as he turned and faced them again. "How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself I was about to when I got distracted by the hulk. My name's Dr. Merlin Emrys." He gave a little wave. "And how do you and Banner know each other?" Steve continued. "We're old friends, we have known each other for a very long time." This time it was Natasha that spoke. "Then why has Bruce never mentioned you before?" Merlin shrugged. "That's a question for Bruce not me." Everyone turned to look at Bruce waiting to hear his answer.

"Uh..." Merlin sighed, Bruce never was any good at talking with so many people staring at him, unless it was to do with science then the man could talk for ages, to anyone who was interested, but when it comes to his personal life don't expect too many answers, or words for that matter. "We went to school together, as well as collage. Once Bruce was exposed to the gamma radiation, we tried to figure it out together but the military were after him, so he had to go on the run, leaving everything and everyone he knew behind, including me." At the last part Merlin looked at Bruce with a sad smile on his lips. Tony looked at Bruce and he looked just plain sad.

"That still doesn't explain why he said nothing about you?" Thought it may have sounded heartless, it was just Natasha being Natasha she did not trust the stranger just yet. For all she knew this was just the man messing with Bruce's mind to try and gain their trust so that they would hand over the staff; They were no strangers to mind tricks. That Bruce had never mention this man before was just to coincidental, not to mention that although he said he when to school with Bruce he looked about fifteen years younger than him.

"We erased everything that could prove that we had ever know each other. General Ross would have stopped at nothing to get Bruce, we both didn't think it would be too far of a reach for him to use people Bruce knew to get him to give himself up. So I helped Bruce flee the country and then I left America to come back here. Since then we have only spoken to each other a few times. As for why he never told you about me, well do you tell your team-mates everything about yourselves, do they know every friend you have?"

"Though you have a point there, that doesn't explain the age difference?" said Hawkeye, joining the conversation for the first time. Merlin looked confused, "Why would our age difference matter?" Bruce caught on the real meaning of the question, and answered. "He's older than he looks, he is actually only a year younger than me."

Hawkeye and Tony jaws both dropped, though no one could see Tony's face behind the face-plate. Both had thought the man standing next to Bruce to be around Natasha's age not the same ages as both of them. Before more questions could be asked, Fury cut in over the comms, asking for a report as to what was happening, and why it was talking so long. Also telling them to get back on the quinjet because he wanted them back in New York ASAP. Apparently there had been a threat of another attack, and the Avengers were needed on stand-by in case whoever it was made good on their threat.

Merlin looked over at Bruce, "I guess you have to go?" The rest of the team, went over and got into the quinjet that had just landed, giving the two old friends a chance at a private goodbye. Tony sat down going over the events that happened today, and here he thought it was just going to be a normal day. Tony chuckled to himself at his own thoughts, when had his life ever been normal.

"Oh... Well I didn't see that coming. Though I guess there were plenty of signs. The hulks reaction for one." Tony heard Clint say to Natasha, they were both at the entrance to the plane looking out to where they had just come from. Curiosity getting the best of him he stood up to come and stand beside them, to see what they were looking at.

Not for the first time today his jaw dropped yet again, seems like Bruce is just full of surprises. "Well fuck, I always thought he had a crush on you Natasha. Seems I was very wrong." There outside, Bruce was hugging Merlin close to him, their foreheads pressed against each other as they talked, then Bruce leant in and they kissed. Tony felt sadness rise in his chest for his friend. All those times when Bruce had looked at him and Steve with a strange look, he had thought that maybe he was a tiny bit homophobic. Now he realise it must have just reminded him of the man he was currently lost in a passionate kiss with. He looked over at Steve who was pointedly looking anywhere but where Bruce and Merlin stood, a bright red blush tinting his cheeks. He must of overhead something they said to each other. Tony would have to ask him later when they were alone.

No one spoke, when Bruce boarded the plane, but Tony was never one to keep his mouth shut so once they were in the air he spoke. "So Bruice-bear what exactly is your boyfriend a doctor of?"

"A lot." was the only answer he got before Bruce slipped on his headphones, the sad expression on his face was enough for him to start plotting ways to get Merlin and Bruce together, even if the man had to come live at the tower, it wasn't as if it wasn't big enough. He dubbed his plan operation acquire Bruice-bear's teddy-bear. Still thinking of the way the hulk had held the man.

 _Meanwhile in an S.H.I.E.L.D containment facility. Location: Classified_

There was an ancient sidhe staff, that had survive more than a thousand years, a man appeared beside it just as old as the staff, his eyes glowing gold as his hand when through the metal surrounding his staff and pulling it free. As quick as he came he was gone leaving only a few currents of rouge wind that made up his transportation spell.

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